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Thread: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

  1. #1

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    Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    I'm looking for simple storage, nothing fancy, but at least Firewire 400 if not 800 since USB 2.0 is so slow...

    What is the best value at the moment? Buying lots of cheap 500gb drives, 1tb, 2tb?

    LaCie, WD, no-name or ?

    Does the cache matter for simple back-ups (I'm not running Photoshop off it).

    I have 2tb x 2 right now, so I want a third drive for off-site storage.

  2. #2

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    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    How about a hard disk dock? It' be ideal for sending drives off site.

    The Vantec Nexstar Hard Drive Docks come in a version with FW400. Then get whatever bare hard drive you like. FW400 is fine for backups. I even used one as a scratch disk on an older laptop.

    I have seen a dock with FW800, but it was nearly three times the price.

  3. #3
    Joanna Carter's Avatar
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    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    Try the WiebeTech drive enclosures; you can put tour own disk inside and they have a choice, including eSata, Firewire 800 & 400 and USB, all in one case.
    Joanna Carter
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    UKLFPG

  4. #4

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    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    LaCie don't seem to have recovered from a bad reliability patch yet. I've been using four WD MyBook Studio Editions (3x500MB + 1x1TB) for over two years now. The 1TB sits on the network as a server, but is turned off each night. The smaller disks get carted around and attached to a variety of computers with a mix of USB2.0 and Firewire 400 and 800 connections. All have worked fine, despite the constant off/on and connect-reconnect cycles - they're much better than I expected given the low price.

    Server quality disks exist with beefier power supplies, supposedly more reliable chipsets, and heat sinking to cope with high throughput, 24/7. G-tech is a name the music producers and theorectical physicists I know tend to recommend. For me though, the ability to afford multiple backups is worth more than the increased reliability of one. I have had disks stolen from my office or drenched in coffee more often than I have had them die unrecoverably.

  5. #5

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    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    I roll my own disks using MiniStack enclosures and drives bought from
    Newegg, I have 6 of them and 3 are left on almost 24/7. I have had a
    fan die on one of them but it was older model so I attibute it to age.
    Cache size does matter for faster read/writes as does the rpm.

    MiniStack

  6. #6

    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    Quote Originally Posted by Struan Gray View Post
    LaCie don't seem to have recovered from a bad reliability patch yet.
    Have there been any tests in regards to LaCie and reliability or is this just your own opinion? I hear this a lot, but I also hear it in regards to ANY of the big name makers. We use LaCie in the lab and have had 1 drive die out of nearly 50 over the last 2 years (constant use)--that one drive was knocked off of a table and kicked while still in the air during a write phase. I was still able to pull all of the information except for the file currently being written off of the drive, though, it was damaged.

    I'm not saying go for LaCie to Frank, but I am wondering what the basis is for the claim of LaCie's reliability. If there is a documented problem with them then I want to know so I can switch to a different brand in my lab!

  7. #7

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    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    I have used Lacie with no problem. Currently using WD My Books. If I had the computer to support eSata (3gbs transfer rate) that is what I would do...the transfer rates are much better than Firewire. According to my information USB 2.0 (480 mbs transfer rate)is better in regard to data transfer rates than Firewire 400 (ieee1394a--400mbs transfer rate). An esata card can be added to most computers if not already so equipped.

    The transfer rates are really important when transfering large files. I am doing a lot of video at present and a slow external drive really chokes things down.

    http://www.google.com/products/catal...m=6#ps-sellers

  8. #8

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    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    This is what I will get once I upgrade my PC to 64bit: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-...op/#raidlevels

    It is reasonably priced and allows for up to 8TB of storgae in any REID configuration imaginable. You can chose to just buy the enclosure, or get the entire solution, incl. harddrives.
    Juergen

  9. #9

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    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    Quote Originally Posted by Juergen Sattler View Post
    This is what I will get once I upgrade my PC to 64bit: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-...op/#raidlevels

    It is reasonably priced and allows for up to 8TB of storgae in any REID configuration imaginable. You can chose to just buy the enclosure, or get the entire solution, incl. harddrives.
    It's just an expensive SATA extender. A motherboard with a bunch of SATA connectors will do all that does.

    My 4 year old beast has 8 SATA ports and RAID of all kinds is relatively simple. Most modern motherboards have a bunch of SATA ports.

    The X58 boards for Lynfield/i7 will sport 6 G/s SATA and are starting to appear. Probably where I'm going.

  10. #10

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    Re: Best Value in Firewire External Drives

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeremy Moore View Post
    Have there been any tests in regards to LaCie and reliability or is this just your own opinion?
    Just my own opinion, but I like to think it's informed.

    I used to buy LaCie external drives as a matter of course. I still have one 120 MB drive from seven years ago which is going strong. About three to four years ago I started to hear anecdotes about power supply unreliability and odd bouts of flakey performance. So I checked with our computer support, who do not sell or repair equipment, but who do run a well-used helpdesk, and who tend to be the first port of call for all the non-techie users across the campus. They too had noticed a rise in LaCie failures, above the usual drive failure trickle, and in stark contrast to LaCie's previous good reputation for affordable reliability.

    When I set up the backup system for my little group here a couple of years ago that reputation for unreliable drives had not faded, so I went with WD. The same caveats still apply. Perhaps the reputation is now ill-deserved, but LaCie have to prove it - the goodwill is gone.

    I'm no expert, and I've not run 'real' tests, and I have successfully gone against our helpdesk's recommendations before now; but their advice is certainly good enough for practical purposes. If Frank wants failsafe, there are milspec drives and hotswappable raid enclosures, albeit at a price.

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